IDW - Transformers #48

Title: Conquerors Part 3: Helden

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Andrew Griffith

Colours by: Josh Perez

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: Carlos Guzman

Plot

D.O.C. encounters Buster, the resident dog of the EDC and Thundercracker's belovedpet, however due to her apparent lack of use, D.O.C. dismisses her as unhelpful. Thundercracker appears from the corridor and mistakes D.O.C. for one of the EDC's drones. D.O.C. uses some holograms to try and tell Thudnercracker what's been happening, but he fails to understand it's meaning. D.O.C. wanders off to try and find his friends, and Buster follows, and leads him into the kitchen area, where she uses a machine to dispense some dog food for herself. D.O.C. hacks into the dispenser and brings up a map of the facility, but finds a power source leading to nothing, so he decides to investigate it.

Buster alerts the drone that some humans are coming, and creates a distracting by peeing on the floor, allowing D.O.C. to hover away unseen.

Before he can get too far away however, D.O.C. is mistaken for one of the resident drones and is captured by a truck, who takes him away for some reason. Buster watches this, but decides that D.O.C. is her friend now, and wants to rescue him.

Buster heads through the base, and locates the truck, biting at the clamps keeping D.O.C. in place,a nd freeing her new friend, who now accepts her as useful and a friend too.

The dynamic duo go through some tunnels and find an empty room, off the grid, and notices the roof leaking with some "bad water". D.O.C. ignores Buster's barks and cuts a hole in the oof, and causes it to flood the lower floor too. D.O.C. and Buster swim up to the top of the "water" they find the captured Autobots restrained, being slowly dissolved, however D.O.C. manages to break their restraints and begins cutting open the ceiling again.

Thundercracker, Faireborn and Jones are running down the corridor to locate Buster and the "runaway drone" and find the floor being burned open, just before the Autobots escape. Before a fight can break out though, Buster and D.O.C. explain, with Jetfire and Thundercracker translating for the others, that they were found in a hidden room. Marissa had no idea about any of this, and figures that it must be all Blackrock's doing.

In Spike's cell, Blackrock keeps trying to get him to explain who he really is, and reveals that he wants Spike to do this because he knows Cybertronians better than anyone else. Spike suddenly twigs on and deduces that Blackrock is a Cybertronian in some way, which is why he has no past, or soul etc. Blackrock dismisses this, but the cell is suddenly broken into by the Autobots and EDC. Spike restrains Blackrock and Marissa takes his data-pad from him, revealing to her what he's been up to, including capturing the Ark in orbit, and spying on the world. She prepares to release the ship when suddenly Galvatron teleports in (with a now freed Skywarp) and confirms that Blackrock was planted on Earth by Onyx Prime to capture the Enigma of Combination for him, but now Galvatron wants him so he can continue his war against the Primes, before grabbing Blackrock, welcoming him as his Cybertronian brother....

Characters

Autobot

Jetfire - Fighter Jet

Jazz - Sports Car

Sky Lynx - Space Shuttle

Kup - Pick-Up Truck

Cosmos - Orbiter (Hologram)

Prowl - Police Vehicle (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Galvatron - Tank

Skywarp - Cybertronian Jet

Soundwave - Personnel Carrier (Hologram)

Human

Marissa Faireborn

Ayana Jones

Sanjay Bharwanay

Spike Witwicky

EDC Troops

Cybertronian

Garrison Blackrock Captured by Galvatron

Thundercracker - Fighter Jet

Nexus Prime (Mentioned)

Onyx Prime (Mentioned)

Other

Buster the Dog

D.O.C.

Thrust-Dirge Clone Combiners - Jets (Hologram)

Notes

• Due to both main characters in this issue not being to talk "properly" we get specific panels with their language translated for us...it is quite hilarious.
• Also, when Buster is "in charge" of the story, the colours are somewhat more muted, due to dogs having a more limited colour-range.
• How did D.O.C. get footage of Soundwave and Cosmos on the Jupiter commune?
• Faireborn and Jones are dressed up in clothing similar to Lady Jaye's from GI Joe. In previous series' Jaye was Marissa's mother.
• One of the posters in the EDC rec-room says to "Visit Poverty Flat" that was the town that was caught in the middle of the fight between the Autobots and Decepticons after they returned to Earth following Dark Cybertron.
• It has also been "40 days" with no accidents. The last "accident" was probably when the Autobots attacked the EDC base and General Witwicky was killed.
• Human language to Buster is translated into anagrams of most words, with specific key words being unscrambled, such as "Hi", "Buster" and "Dog".
• We saw Jazz being slowly melted away by Blackrock in an earlier issue, but now we know all the captured Autobots are in that same pool as well
• Thundercracker can apparently accurately translate what Buster says....odd.
• If it is true that Blackrock is one of Onyx Prime's followers in disguise and under deep-cover, then this would explain how Blackrock was able to re-translate "Ark" as "Vanguard" in the previous issue
• Also, even if it turns out to be a trick of some sort, it now seems likely that the "Black Angel" that Blackrock mentioned before is most likely Onyx Prime, since his traditional appearance has wings, which could be seen as angelic, and the word "Onyx" even means black!
• Also, this issue implies that Onyx Prime still lives somewhere, since he more than likely planted Blackrock on Earth in the more recent past.
• Skywarp has been freed from the Nemesis...let's see if he stays that way now?